Turnout was strong in Killingly school funding vote

Monday

Mar 17, 2014 at 10:34 PMMar 17, 2014 at 10:34 PM

By John Penneyjpenney@norwichbulletin.com(860) 857-6965

KILLINGLY — By 7 p.m. March 11, only a handful of residents had arrived at Killingly Town Hall for a public hearing about a $1 million appropriation for the school board, a proposal aimed at ending a yearlong effort to address a violation of state education funding rules.

Less than 15 minutes later, more than 70 parents had filled the Town Council’s chambers, taking up every available seat as council members discussed and ultimately approved the measure. By the time the public vote was called at 8 p.m., an overflow area outside the chambers was stacked with more arriving residents.

The ordinance, which called for transferring $1.04 million from the town’s unassigned fund balance account to the Board of Education, overwhelmingly passed muster with voters, with no “nay” votes voiced. Less than five minutes after the vote, the chamber room was nearly empty again, with a dozen more agenda items still left to discuss.

School officials said the turnout, larger than any in recent years, was the result of an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign that used social media to get residents out of their homes and into Town Hall.

School board Chairwoman Alexis Rich said the night’s turnout could be attributed to a couple of factors.

“PTO members and others conducted a grass-roots effort with their email lists, telling residents about the meeting and asking them to bring a friend,” she said. “In addition, Superintendent Kevin Farr has recently established a Twitter and Facebook page to keep residents informed about these kind of events.”

Christine Rosati, a Killingly parent and regional director of the Northeast Early Childhood Council, used a contact list of 200 Killingly residents to send email blasts about the meeting.

“During the last two years, we’ve used flyers, word-of-mouth and other means to give people information about meetings that might affect their kids,” she said. “A lot of these types of meetings come at times when it’s challenging for a parent to get to. So we use whatever method works best to give them information so they can adjust their schedules. It’s not about swaying anyone, but simply giving them information.”

On March 12, Farr’s Twitter feed, featured on the district’s homepage, included the following message: “Don’t forget important meeting at town hall tonight at 7pm. Town Council/Town Meeting to consider supplemental appropriation for KPS.”

“The ‘where’ and ‘when,’ ” he said. “We’ll use any means necessary to let the public know about these kind of topics. But we also use it to let folks know about other things, like a recent anti-bullying event that took place at the middle school.”

The positive vote last week meant the town would not be subject to a $2.1 million state penalty it was in danger of incurring as the result of a similar appropriation a year ago, while also keeping the district on track with special education funding for the remainder of the school year.

Town Council Chairman John Hallbergh said he wasn’t surprised by the number of voters who showed up.

“But I didn’t expect the ordinance to pass with a 100 percent approval,” he said. “I know the PTO was calling people and (Farr) had previously talked about reaching out to residents for these kind of meetings.”

Former school board member Angela Brower said the idea of engaging residents through social media took off with the recent creation of the Killingly Community Engagement Council, which operates as a bridge between the school board and the community.

“Members of a different group had previously brainstormed ways of connecting with the community and social media outreach was a big part of that discussion, though nothing happened with it then,” she said. “What you saw last week was the fruits of that labor. And now we need to expand that outreach to the thousands of people coming out to budget votes. There were several important meetings when I was on the board that I only knew about because I was a member.”